Nicholas Olson

      

     The week of the Campus Residency Tour was one of the most eventful weeks I’ve had. On Monday, we did fieldwork on a roughly 10 acre farm, got introduced to a water catchment research project, toured the UMD campus, and did an urban farm tour with some other interns from USDA National Agricultural Statistics Survey (NASS). The visit to UMD was filled with different activities and things to see. Each day we started out doing a leadership-related workshop where we talked about our personal values and what sort of qualities go into being a leader. After that we visited the research greenhouse, an aquaponics lab, bug zoo, water quality lab, food waste lab, green roof tour, and a networking luncheon. 

      

One of the three green rooves on the Edward St. John building at the University of Maryland. These plants have to be drought-resistant and tolerant of shallow soils to adapt to their roof ecosystem.

     Our leadership activities were beneficial in a way that got me thinking about how to be a leader in my everyday life. Thinking about my personal values ended up making me think about the type of leader I can be. Dr. Silas talked about how there is no single way that a leader should act, but it matters who you are as a person because anyone can be a leader. I think it is important to have a quality that gets everyone involved when you are working with a research project. Effective communication is what will help everyone stay on track, and part of the role of a leader is doing just that. 

The image on the left shows the research greenhouse that we toured. On both the right and left side of this hallway are areas containing plants that are being grown in different conditions. The image on the right is of Dr. Izursa's aquaponics lab. The purple lights help with plant growth and the fish underneath the plants provide essential nutrients which get filtered into the irrigation system.

One thing that I learned about the University of Maryland is that they are doing lots of research across all different fields of agriculture. I find this promising because I would like to continue my activity in research as the school year starts up again. I found Dr. Lancing’s lab is fascinating because of the way that they are turning food waste into methane to be used for fuel. Seeing the different labs made me realize that UMD is working hard to improve our issues in agriculture, and figuring out new ways to feed a growing population. 

The mixer that we had was also really nice because it was good to see the UMD campus faculty members who have such a good relationship with the Extension employees and all the work that they do. They recognize the importance of Extension which is why they came out to support the interns and share some wise words. I felt that directly which is why I had a great time on the tour.